Dialogues with a Modern Mystic

As the Dalai Lama and many other contemporary spiritual leaders have emphasized, ours is not an era when seekers after God can afford to withdraw from the world. As darkness and danger increase around us, enlightenment becomes less and less a private affair. We are being called upon today to act as enlightened revolutionaries, bodhisattvas of compassionate action to preserve the creation and to help usher in the next millennium. In this riveting series of conversations, modeled on the Sufi tradition of sohbet (literally the spiritual talk of friends), Mark Matousek and Andrew Harvey touch on a wide range of philosophical issues critical to our times, from the loss of sacredness in contemporary life, to the importance of the divine feminine and what Harvey calls the “mystic dilemma” faced by spiritual seekers in a secular, materialist culture. How is it possible to live with an ongoing awareness of divinity, transcendence, and grace in our daunting, terror-filled age? What lessons can we draw from history’s great mystics, to strengthen our faith and wisdom in course of everyday life? These and many other challenging questions are addressed in this unique book.